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What happens when a man is convicted of murdering someone who isn't even dead? In 1925, the quiet mining town of Coxton, Kentucky became the setting for one of America's most bizarre miscarriages of justice.

Condy Dabney was an unremarkable family man who moved from Tennessee to work in the coal mines before starting a small taxi business. When 14-year-old Mary Vickery disappeared after a day of apple picking with friends, suspicion eventually fell on Dabney, the taxi driver who may have given her a ride. After the discovery of a decomposed body in an abandoned mine shaft, the case seemed tragically clear.

The prosecution's star witness was Marie Jackson, a woman scorned by Dabney's rejection of her romantic advances. Her dramatic testimony—claiming she witnessed Dabney murder Mary—sealed his fate despite glaring inconsistencies and contradicting evidence. A jury sentenced him to life imprisonment with hard labor.

But nearly a year later, a chance encounter revealed an astonishing truth: Mary Vickery was alive. She had simply run away from home with $5 and a basket of apples to escape her troubled relationship with her stepmother. Dabney received an immediate pardon, while Marie Jackson served five years for false testimony.

This remarkable story challenges us to examine how easily justice can be derailed when revenge, assumption, and false testimony outweigh evidence and truth. It forces us to question: how many other innocent people throughout history have faced similar fates without the miraculous twist that saved Condi Dabney?

Listen to this captivating episode that underscores the devastating power of lies and the fragility of justice in small-town America. Have you ever wondered what happens to those wrongfully convicted when the truth finally comes to light? Share your thoughts with us and subscribe for more true crime stories that defy belief.

Sources:

Convicting the Innocent: Error of Criminal Justice (1932)
by Edwin M Borchard; Case #9
http://vots.altervista.org/CTI/09Dabney.html

Pardoned After a Year in Prison-The Wrongful Conviction of Condy Dabney
by Steve Gilly
March 23, 2025
https://storiesofappalachia.com/?p=3482

https://www.victimsofthestate.org/KY/

She Rose from the Dead
by Robert A Waters
September 10, 2020;'
http://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2020/09/she-rose-from-dead.html